Laguna Beach 

Editor: This is "Laguna Beach" by Rose O'Neill. I don't know the date, but it’s a landscape done with oil paint. I find the scene very calming. What stands out to you about this artwork? Curator: I see a fascination with the physicality of the paint itself. Look at how O'Neill layers the impasto to create a sense of depth and texture. What can we discern about O’Neill's working process, judging by the final image and her choice of tools and techniques? Editor: It looks like she used visible brushstrokes to try to recreate the actual atmosphere. Is this a 'Plein-air' technique, painting the scene directly, working with natural light on site? Curator: Precisely. 'Plein-air' situates artmaking in the social world, since it means working in public. Impressionist landscape became associated with leisure time and bourgeois society; and it reflects consumerism through buying ready-made colors, easels, and canvas for outdoor painting, a distinct separation of manual and intellectual labor. How do you think this availability influenced the subjects artists chose? Editor: Perhaps it liberated them. Freed from the studio and portraiture, artists could portray landscapes for pure aesthetic value rather than symbolism or patronage. Curator: A valid point. Landscape painting created an increasing demand for paint manufacture and painting equipment that democratized the profession and elevated an artisan's traditional toil into creative "work." Editor: So it sounds like even the artistic choices were influenced by what was available to the artist. Curator: Exactly, we are seeing the transformation of labor relations through painting.